1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates generally to the field of electronics devices, and networks thereof. More particularly, portions of the disclosure are directed to, inter alia, methods and apparatus for packing and transporting data received from data content sources.
2. Description of Related Technology
DisplayPort (see, inter alia, www.DisplayPort.org) is an exemplary digital display interface technology specified by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). Current incarnations of the standard specify support for simple networking of digital audio/visual (A/V) interconnects, intended to be used primarily between an arbitrary assembly of multimedia “sources” (e.g., computers or CPUs) and “sinks” (e.g. display monitors, home-theater system, etc.). This interconnection is generally unidirectional in nature; i.e., from source to sink, in current implementations.
The typical DisplayPort connection includes multiple data lanes (e.g. 1, 2, or 4 data pairs), and an embedded clock. Unlike other standards (e.g., HDMI, DVI), DisplayPort embeds the clock in the data signal transmission, and requires clock regeneration at the receiver. Audio signals may be optionally included, but are not required. The bi-directional auxiliary channel (operating at a constant 1 Mbit/s) carries management and device control data. The data transmission protocol in DisplayPort is based on micro-packets which can be transmitted isochronously. The isochronous delivery of DisplayPort provides, among other things, some flexibility and extensibility for future feature additions.
For reasons described in greater detail hereinafter, incipient research is directed to leveraging portions of DisplayPort technology for internal consumer electronics device operations (e.g., bus interfaces, etc.). Various implementation-specific considerations require modifications to the underlying DisplayPort scheme. For example, certain data formats generated by components (e.g., camera modules, etc.) are not supported for transfer over DisplayPort bus protocols including, but not limited to, raw (e.g., RAW) formatted data.
Accordingly, improved methods and apparatus are needed to support internal consumer electronics device operations using DisplayPort technology. More generally, apparatus and methods are needed for packing and transporting data received within an electronics device.